


An Unknown World

by Ysavvryl



Category: Metroid Series
Genre: Backstory, Gen, Nonlinear Order, Worldbuilding
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-10
Updated: 2019-05-10
Packaged: 2020-02-29 13:30:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,336
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18779245
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ysavvryl/pseuds/Ysavvryl
Summary: On following a distress signal to an uncharted world, Samus finds herself reflecting over the past: her own, her adoptive family, and that of this odd world.





	An Unknown World

**Author's Note:**

  * For [FireEye](https://archiveofourown.org/users/FireEye/gifts).



Time passed, but Bright Eyes wasn’t as sure of it as she used to be.  She was a seer, yes, one able to find truth in many directions of time.  But for measuring time by hours, days, years, or any time, she no longer felt that.  She was ascending to a higher plane of existence, along with other Chozo.  It was an eternal existence; time meant little to eternity.  As the Chozo were facing their end, they found this to be their natural progression.

Most of them did.  A few chose to remain in the physical plane.  One of those was currently known as Old Bird.  With his interests in a few promising races throughout the galaxy, it made more sense for him to remain.  He took a ship and traveled the stars that way.  He was a teacher, a researcher, a scientist… a friend.  Bright Eyes followed his ship to help when normal means couldn’t find the truth.

Old Bird called on her occasionally to talk or play games, but not on a regular enough basis for her to recognize the time.  Once, he called on her for help with something unusual.  “I need to make ship repairs, but there’s no civilized world close enough for us to reach.  This one wasn’t documented and seemed uncivilized, the best option I had.”

“I sense monsters,” Bright Eyes said.  They weren’t close to the ship, but she felt a mindless aggression from some creatures of this world.

He nodded.  “I had to stop one from wrecking the ship further.  Would you keep watch while I work on ship repairs?  I sent out a distress signal, no telling if or when we’ll get a response on that.”

“I can keep watch and attempt to ward the creatures off,” she said.  “We shall have to see if I can affect them.”

“Thank you, I’ll work as quickly as I can,” Old Bird said, already gathering tools.

After checking where the trouble with the ship was, Bright Eyes moved outside and turned her attention to the area around the ship.  They were in a rocky area where grasslands met with desert; mountains could be seen beyond the desert.  There were many small animals nearby: shimmering lizards soaking in the sun, insects buzzing about, rodents working on underground burrows, an odd bird that used a pouch of sand to keep a dust cloud around itself.  As the animals considered the ship nothing more than a part of the scenery, they must have landed some time ago.  The condition of the plants under them suggested no more than a day.

But past where normal sight could see, she could sense creatures twisted by an unnatural force.  They had little sense or thought, a scent of oily smoke.  The scratches of claws could be seen on rocks; scorches from old fires were on the ground.    However, something was protecting this patch of land.  Nature was strong here as opposed to the warped areas where the monsters were.  For being a world that little was known about, it was in a curious condition.

Bright Eyes could think of someone who might enjoy this world, the one who had given her her current name.

* * *

A peal of happy laughter reached into the Hall of Meditation, ripples of noise disturbing the silence.  It was not unwelcome noise even though it woke her.  After all, it was a hatchling’s laughter.  Although, strange… she hadn’t seen anything of a couple lucky enough to have children in this present.  All of them were old beings of a dying race, no longer able to continue.  They were transcending normal existence, so it shouldn’t matter.  But with a hatchling around, things would be happier.

Then she realized, that was the human hatchling that some of the younger Chozo had taken in.  She was traveling with Old Bird: clambering up and down vines, jumping with all her might from rock to rock, crawling through Morph Ball tunnels, then hugging Old Bird while he was still in ball form.  That was considerably better then when she’d arrived a year ago, weakened from the unkind environment of Zeebes and having lost her parents to those cruel space pirates.  Life was a resilient wonder.  Even as some races faded, others rose to prominence.  Even as tragedy occurred, life went on.

As they reached the hall, the hatchling got hushed.  “This is where our seers and elders meditate to connect to the cosmos.  We must be quiet and respectful here.”

“Mmm…” the young girl wasn’t happy with being told that, but she answered, “Okay.”

When they entered the hall, there was only a Torizo statue inside.  The usual hush was still disturbed.  The spirits residing here were watching, curious about their new visitor.  In return, the girl took her caretaker’s hand and looked around at the massive stone hall decorated with pictures of the past, present, and future.  The seer kept adding to the pictures with what she saw; she was running out of space.  Among those pictures, there were predictions of a great Defender, she who was a Hatchling that wasn’t fully Chozo.  Like this girl now that she’d been infused with their blood so that she could survive here.

She should be continuing her path to true ascension.  However, prophecy was not something one could sit back and watch.  Prophecy was potential; potential had to be nurtured.  Taking a deep breath, the seer came down into the physical realm.  This would slow down her progress, but teaching a potential Defender was for the higher good of all.  The physical body felt heavy now, something she’d have to get used to again.

The girl gasped on seeing her appear.  Old Bird patted her hand.  “It’s fine.  She’s one of the elders, a seer.  And this is Samus, the hatchling we rescued.”

“Your colors are bright, hatchling,” the seer said, admiring the yellow of her hair and green of her eyes.  There was so much potential in this girl.  The same could be said of any hatchling, but the seer knew.  She hadn’t seen such flux in one being before.

“Hi,” she said, looking up at her.  “What’s your name?”

Old Bird rubbed his beak, unsure of what to say.  The seer extended a hand to the hatchling.  “I have left behind much working on my enlightenment, including my name.  You may call me what you like.”

After looking at her a moment longer, Samus said, “You have bright eyes, so you can be Bright Eyes.”

“Very well, I will answer to that,” Bright Eyes said.

She had forgotten her original name, but ‘Bright Eyes’ was spoken in the present and thus easier to remember.  The present was a solid part of time, the bedrock to a seer’s power.  Looking to the past, there was a solid path that time had taken.  The path of history was flanked by lost possibilities, lies, and misinterpretations.  Some of them were made strong by belief; learning to properly see the truth was important.  Looking to the future was a maze of possibilities that constantly shifted by decisions, words, and actions taken in the present.  Some possibilities were clear and strong, making them likely to become true.  If it wasn’t for that, a seer’s job would be useless.

* * *

Old Bird had thought that they wouldn’t get an answer to the distress signal.  But deep into the night, another ship landed in the canyon near them.  It turned out to be Samus, who had been surprised not just at the signal out in the middle of nowhere, but on finding them there.  “Are you all right?” she asked.

“Yes, just caught on a dangerous world,” Old Bird said.  “Bright Eyes is here too, but she hasn’t been in physical form since Zeebes.”

“Hello Samus,” she said, appearing nearby as a spirit.  “I need to get back to watching the area, but it’s good to hear you again.”

She smiled, having removed her helmet while inside their ship.  “Same here.  Are you going to leave once you’re done with repairs?”

“We’ve been considering sticking around to see what’s going on with this world,” Old Bird said.  “I thought it was unremarkable when I made the emergency landing here.  But in the short time here, it’s clear something strange has gone on.”

“I would look into this world’s past, but I need to keep watch for the monsters,” Bright Eyes said.  “There are areas of distorted space on this world which are unlike the rest.  This landing place seems somewhat protected.  If we could find out why and how to secure that protection, I would be free to look into the truth.”

“We don’t have much to compensate you right now, but would you help us solve this world’s mysteries?” Old Bird asked.

Samus nodded without hesitation.  “Sure, this sounds like something that needs to be checked out.  Besides, you’re family.  I’m happy to help you out.”

“Between the three of us, the mysteries shouldn’t remain so for long,” Bright Eyes said, happy with this.

* * *

There came a time when Samus was old enough to take the warrior’s trial.  In the main temple, she was asked to navigate a maze with traps and automated enemies with only the base suit of a warrior and a small handgun.  There were two Torizo statues in the way that were both set to battle her.  To make it a good test, they both had different fighting programs to follow.  One was highly aggressive and kept in close range.  The other was defensive and used projectiles along with a shield.  Quickly noticing this, Samus lured the aggressive one into another hall in order to defeat it without the defensive one throwing projectiles at her.  Some races would call this cowardly, but not the Chozo.  It was the sensible tactic.

After passing the maze and the Torizo battles, Samus had to face a challenge of the war god’s choosing.  Bright Eyes respectfully kept from watching as she was a seer, not a warrior.  Old Bird was also not a warrior, so she manifested her spirit near him the main room of the temple.  “Do not worry,” she told him.  “She decided on this path and shall succeed.”

“Is that something you have foreseen?” he asked, smoothing out his feathers in a nervous gesture.

“I’ve seen many possibilities and her success today is strong.”

“You don’t speak in certainties as much these days,” Old Bird said, looking to the glow of her spirit.

She shifted to seem like she was taking a seat there.  “Novice seers speak in certainty because they entered the trade to know certainty.  Experienced seers not only know better, but we want to be surprised.  The universe balances itself.  Trying to take control of the future will cause the universe to balance with a nasty surprise.  Accepting what is possible over what will be allows more pleasant surprises to come.  Like Samus to us.”

“I see.  Do you think that we tried too much to take control and that leads to the darkness that we all feel is coming?”

“That seems to be the case,” Bright Eyes said.

Bringing out a journal, he checked on something.  “It seems knowing nature is fine.  Working with nature is also fine, but controlling nature is where things can go awry.  Hmm, I suppose it was better that I sought to be a scientist rather than a seer.  I would have had trouble letting go of the desire to know for certain.”

She chuckled.  “That would be so.  Are you thinking over these things because you’re uncertain of letting go of Samus?  Or uncertainty of ascension?”

“Your possibilities of me, huh?” he asked back, skimming over his notes.  “Some of both, in truth.  I never had a hatchling of my own, being too focused on my research and work to have time for that.  It seems to have been to my misfortune, and for us all because I was far from the only one with that attitude.”

“Indeed.”

“This time seems to have gone by so fast,” he said warmly.  “Once she passes the portion of her training with the suit, she’ll be going back to the Galactic Federation to join their warriors.  We decided that between our training and theirs, she should be in good position to battle the space pirates.  But we’re going to leave Zeebes for elsewhere when she does.  I’m glad she’s going off to fulfill her dreams, but I already feel how lonely it will be without her.”

“I had my own hatchlings long ago; it is a bittersweet happiness when they are ready to take on their own lives.  But in order to see them at their greatest, they need to be let go, with well wishes and warm thoughts.  A parent is better rewarded for that even if it is lonely at first.”

“I’ll trust your words on that,” Old Bird said.  “Do you feel the same about her?”

“Yes,” Bright Eyes admitted.  “After all, she is off for a dangerous life.  She could succeed and become one of the legends of the galaxy.  She could also become a terror of the galaxy if she slips.  But, I hope she becomes the former.”

“I hope so too,” he said.  “About my ascension, I’m not sure if that is the right move for me.  I am curious to know how existence is in a purely spiritual state.  However, I am curious about many things still, not satisfied with my studies and experiments yet.  I’m considering staying in a physical state even if the rest of you ascend to spirits.”

She’d thought that was so.  “It is your choice.  Yet should you remain in this state, you will be at the mercy of death given enough time.”

He nodded.  “I’m well aware of that.  But should I ascend, there are things that I will no longer be capable of doing.  I know we planned to ask others for help; I am willing to be one of those others to continue my own work.”

Hearing that, Bright Eyes saw possibilities shift, some growing stronger.  “That could work out well.  I plan to continue my path, but I will keep in contact with you.”

That made him glad for a friend to stay with.  “Thank you, Bright Eyes.”

* * *

On route to the nearest distorted space, Samus saw a flock of birds flee their perches.  The wildlife in this area had been harmless to her so far and she wasn’t near those trees.  Something came barreling through the trees, crashing noisily right to her location.  Ready for a fight, she moved aside to avoid loose rocks scattered around.  This was likely to be a new foe, the ones Bright Eyes said were violent.  She’d need a scan for them to figure out what these monsters were.

The thing that emerged screeched at her, extending nozzles from its sides.  The canine’s dark skin was patchy with scars, clumps of oily fur, and a rusted metal exoskeleton.  For a moment, Samus wasn’t sure if she wanted to fight such a pitiful creature.  Then it fired blazing white flames from one of its flamethrowers.  The other one ruptured its machinery and engulfed the cyborg wolf in flames.  It was still determined to fight her; she dispatched it partly to end its broken existence.

After waiting a moment to make sure it didn’t have a death explosive, Samus took a closer look at the construction of its exoskeleton.  It looked to be industrial make, not natural: bolts at the joints, wires into the wolf’s skin.  On the working combustion tank for the flamethrower, she found a marking that was likely a production stamp.  She made sure to get a scan of just the stamp; it wasn’t in a language she knew, but Old Bird might find a reference for it.  Or they could find something else to compare it to that wasn’t as rusted.

She ran into a few other cyborg creatures, all in similar states of neglect.  Whoever made them hadn’t been around for a while.  If the makers were found out, then this was a serious crime with the Federation without even considering why they had done this.  It was the kind of thing she’d expect out of the space pirates, albeit of a lower technological sophistication.  Samus dispatched them, considering how these creatures might be if they weren’t rusted and malfunctioning.  While there seemed to be no civilized race around, she knew better than to assume they were completely gone.  She’d seen seemingly extinct beings turn out to be simply in hiding.

And it might have to do with the area Bright Eyes felt was distorted.  Samus had seen things like this before, a world split between light and dark.  This was similar to before; crossing this gray portal in the air should take her to the dark half of the world.  While it could be more dangerous, the answers had to involve this.  She headed inside, prepared to be attacked.

The other world was purely industrial by her first impression of it.  Smoke-filled skies hovered close over disorderly structures of gears, pipes, levers, steam vents, concrete, steel, and glass.  Yet it all shifted and moved in a rhythm, like something immense was breathing under everything.  That was possible.  Although, she’d not seen it with something so immense before.

The portal back seemed stable, so Samus checked out the surrounding area.  There were doors that led nowhere and passages hidden between shifting gears.  When she got indoors, the proportions of spaces were inconsistent.  Halls could be three times her height but barely wide enough for her to pass through with her suit.  One large room she entered had bulges all over with not a single smooth surface.  If this space was made by sentient beings, they were unlike humans or Chozo.

She also ran into several combat robots that resembled the hybrid creatures in the natural world, even down to having the basic shape of the animals.  They weren’t rusted at all, not even a scratch until they got into battle with her.  In prime condition, they were tough, strong, and quick.  They liked to use a storm of ammo on first spotting their target, followed up by melee attacks or kiting around until they could fire again.  After getting surprised by a pair of them in this fashion, Samus left the industrial world to go back to her ship for suit repairs.  She had to find a better way to deal with their battle style.

Since she was back with a lot of new information, she picked up a small wooden box before heading over to Old Bird’s ship.  He was particularly interested in the production stamps.  “I don’t recognize this language or style, but I’d expect it to be obscure.  I’ll run them through the Federation database and by the Elders to see if anyone recognizes it.”

“It’d be nice to know what to call this planet at least,” Samus said.

“I think Bright Eyes heard something about that,” Old Bird said.

“Yes,” the seer said, appearing in the ship with them.  “I can’t speak the name precisely because the people of this world seem to have been most similar to insects.  But it sounds like Merseki, and the people called themselves Tiklkli.”

“I see,” Samus said, then tried the name out herself.  It needed some clicking.  “The Tiklkli apparently tried to keep their industry apart from natural places.  But they also fused these armed exoskeletons onto animals, so they may have changed their mind at one point.”

“It’s a cruelty of those who neglect nature, so the separation might have been induced by guilt,” Old Bird said.  “Or social opposition.  It would be interesting once we get a history on this world.”

“It’s clouded now, just fragments,” Bright Eyes said.

While Old Bird went to research the markings and language, Samus showed Bright Eyes the box.  “It’s like the pebble game you used to play with me, but the humans call it mancala.  It seems like humans invented the game too.”

“That’s understandable since it’s a simple game,” she said.  “Still enjoyable.  Do you have some time to play?”

“Sure, there’s no hurry here,” she said, opening the box.  It had many colored glass stones inside; these were sorted evenly between eight slots in two rows in the game’s case.  “I remember the first time we played this and I accidentally scattered the stones everywhere.”

Bright Eyes chuckled.  “You were unused to affecting physical objects in a spiritual form.  But it’s necessary to learn that skill in order to use the Morph Ball.”

Samus nodded.  Morph Ball was a mystery to the Federation and the space pirates.  However, it was a common technology to the Chozo.  They could not fit their physical bodies entirely into the ball form.  What they could do was tie their spirits to the ball, move their physical self to the spiritual realm, then move the ball to another location to move their physical self to that new location.  It had taken Samus around three years to learn how to do that, but Morph Ball was invaluable to have.

“You know, I figured out that all those games you taught me were a part of my training too,” Smaus said as they started playing.  “The mazes and puzzles too.  There’s been times when I could think of an obstacle in terms of a game and figure out how to get past it.”

“Of course, that’s often the best way to teach hatchlings,” Bright Eyes said.  “Especially with an energetic one like yourself as the student and a seer like myself as the teacher.  The skills I know are not ones that young ones have patience to learn otherwise.  You yourself fell asleep a few times when I taught you meditation.”

She chuckled at herself.  “Right, but knowing how to keep calm under stress is also something important you taught me.  It’s saved my life on a few occasions.”

“I’m glad to help,” she said.

* * *

It had been a few years since Bright Eyes met Samus.  She’d hardly noticed the passage of time, which briefly made her feel sad.  Watching over a hatchling day by day wasn’t easy, but there was joy in it.  In the present, Samus was lying half on her lap in sleep.  Bright Eyes looked backwards and saw that she’d done physical training today.  The hatchling saw it as playing games, not realizing that it was building her strength, stamina, speed, and reflexes.

There would one day be legends about this hatchling.  But what kind of legends?  Perhaps as a seer, foretelling events and giving advice on how to avoid disasters.  That was unlikely, but still a possibility out there along with her becoming a roaming trader or a recorder of Chozo history.  The strongest possibility with Samus was that she became an explorer or a warrior.  She was already a survivor and likely would continue to do so.

Having the hatchling there in her lap, Bright Eyes could see the strands of time around her.  There was a powerful image of her in an adapted power suit made for a warrior.  She stood in many lands: a cold snowy land adapted to pacifying Metroids, the deck of a starship full of corruption and monsters, a thick jungle that tried to slow her down, a lethal maze of lava and caverns, environments as deadly and fantastic as those here on Zeebes.  Exploring and fighting were intertwined, each building the strength of the other.  She could be a hero, a savior of many peoples.  She could be a villain, a destroyer of many worlds.  She could be part of the nightmare that was silently threatening to ruin the peace of the cosmos.

The nightmare… a substance that defied normal laws by seeming alive, spreading itself from world to world with purpose and without guidance.  It took the natural flora and fauna of a world and twisted it into ugly forms bent towards evil.  Evil was often a misused term, dismissing motives and differences.  In the case of this nightmare, this Phazon, evil was the appropriate word.  It sought to destroy and possess.  It possessed intelligence without empathy.

Samus’ path, wherever it went, would be influenced by Phazon, by Metroids, by other Chozo.  It was also entwined with a certain being.  Space Pirates were made up of a race that used their own children as experiments and soldiers; they plundered resources, treasures, and any being violently to their own benefit.  Of the beings they conscripted and altered, one was a swift and powerful warrior with a sharp beak, thick claws, leathery wings, and a barbed edge tail.  He swept in and slaughtered nearly everyone that crossed him in battle.  He slaughtered civilians too, burning up lands and leaving them barren.  Ridley…. his path had already crossed Samus’ when he destroyed the neighboring human base, killing her parents and missing her survival on a few moments of inattention.

A cry broke her reflection; Samus had seen the same thing in her dreams and woke up in a fright.  The other unseen elders in the room frowned at this, disgruntled at the disruption.  Speaking to her peers, Bright Eyes rebuked them.  “Come now, she’s a hatchling who woke from a nightmare.  Do not blame her.”

While they relented and would hold patience, they still didn’t like the noise.  Bright Eyes put a hand on Samus’s back, reminding her that she wasn’t alone.  Then she carefully got up from where she’d sat down long ago, silently offering to take Samus outside.  Samus must have recognized that she was disturbing the others as she nodded and took Bright Eyes’ hand to leave the hall.  Her small grip was tight; her skin had a different feel from Chozo, but she was one of them now.

It was raining outside the hall, but a roofed pavilion kept them sheltered.  Bright Eyes swept aside some rubble to sit down against a wall.  “I am sorry, Samus.  I was looking into strands of time and may have influenced your dreams.”

“It was scary, but you’re not bad,” she said, sitting down by her.  Bright Eyes put an arm around her.  “Do you know the name of the bad dragon?”

Raising a hand, she made a small image of the space pirate appear.  “This one?  He is Ridley.”

Samus initially tensed at seeing him.  But since it was a small still image, she relaxed and nodded.  “That’s him… he burned up everyone.  I want to beat him.”

“He is a savage being; it would be good to stop his violence.”  She stroked Samus’ hair.  “But one must be careful with feelings of vengeance.  They can blind a person and lead them astray.”

“Okay, but he should be stopped,” she said.  She could be a hero; she could be a mercenary.  She could be both.  In the present, she looked up at her.  “Are you okay?  I’ve not seen you leave the hall.”

“I’m fine, but I won’t go any further,” she said, hoping that a change of subject would help.  “You are still a hatchling; I am what your people would call ancient.  I should be ascending to a different plane of existence.  However, I chose to stay to watch you.”

She smiled, reassured at that.  “Why are you going?  What’s a different plane?”

“The Chozo decided long ago that we had reached the peak of our existence, at least as long as we stayed as physical beings,” Bright Eyes said.  “Those of us here on Zeebes stayed here for various reasons, but eventually all of us should become spirits to watch over the galaxy.  We wish to bring peace and enlightenment to all.  That is still a long way off, as warriors are still needed.  But we will work tirelessly towards that goal.”

And there was something she could do for Samus once she headed back home with Old Bird.  It was to cheer her up, to cheer her on and to give her a valuable skill.  From what Bright Eyes had seen, whichever path Samus took, this would help her.  The seer shifted to the spiritual plane to place a present with a Torizo.  She then told Samus to retrieve the present within a week; it was a few days after her nightmare and Bright Eyes wasn’t sure she could recognize the deadline.  But Old Bird would know.  He was allowed to help her if she asked and it wasn’t something she could do on her own.

According to him, it took her three days searching to discover that it was a Torizo that she hadn’t seen before.  Bright Eyes had left hints in etchings near the statues: it was in the area Samus lived in, it was in a closed off room, the present was wrapped up.  Eventually, she asked Old Bird to help her climb up to a narrow tunnel out of one of the larger rooms.  An observant mind would notice that the tunnel was the only way into a space between several rooms, aside from removing a wall with explosives or similarly powerful forces that Samus didn’t have.  The tunnel let her get into the closed-up room where the lone Torizo was placed.

She was excited to bring it back, but kept quiet when she came to show it to Bright Eyes.  “It looks like a Morph Ball, but I can’t use it cause I don’t have any way to use it.”

Putting a hand on the ball, she explained, “This is an older version of the Morph Ball, which we now use to train others in the use of the modern Morph Ball.  It doesn’t move as freely, but it works on the same principle without needing a matching suit or bracer.  With it, I can train you in this ability now.”

“That’s good, it should be very useful,” Old Bird said.  “I didn’t have a training ball myself.”

Samus clasped the ball tight and hopped in place, still trying to keep quiet.  “That’s great!  How does it work?”

“Explaining how it works is more complicated than explaining how to use it,” Bright Eyes said.  “It’s a special piece of technology, but requires being able to move one’s body into a spiritual plane.  From there, one needs to keep hold of the ball in that spirit form as it’s moving.  I’m not certain how humans would do this on their own, but you have our blood within you.  I know you can accomplish this if you keep practicing.”

“Sure, I’ll practice it a lot,” she said, smiling and eager.

Being part Chozo did make a certainty that she could use a Morph Ball.  It was still a difficult ability to master.  Samus had to keep practicing her meditations until she could reach the necessary calmness of mind within a few deep breaths.  If the mind wasn’t calm, the body would resist moving to a spiritual state.  This led a few more times to the hatchling falling asleep instead, but that was normal.  Whenever she got to the right state, Bright Eyes informed her that she was doing well.  When she could hold the calm for several minutes, the seer sent her images of places around Zeebes, mostly those Samus hadn’t seen.  This was so that she’d have goals for her suit training, to reach those places that interested her.

It took a couple of months, but the hatchling got the calm practiced enough to begin Morph Ball training.  At that point, Bright Eyes would take her hands and ask her to calm her mind and body.  Instead of showing her images, she would bring the hatchling over to the spiritual plane.  There was a feeling of being like the wind that Samus needed to learn.  She complained about feeling foggy in her thoughts the first few times; the spiritual plane took some getting used to.  Those who didn’t know how spirit travel worked could get seriously lost, never able to return or returning an unknown amount of time later.  But that was why Bright Eyes kept hold of her during the practice.  She’d lived here for many years, making it very familiar to her.

The next step was getting her to affect things in the physical realm.  Fortunately, there was a game of colored pebbles on a chalk grid that helped teach hatchlings that skill.  Many pebbles were spread between ten slots, with the goal being to move the most pebbles into the player’s possession.  In order to do that, all the pebbles in one slot had to be moved from slot to slot, leaving one pebble in each.  And if the pattern made it so one pebble had to be dropped in your opponent’s possession, it had to be done.  Bright Eyes usually didn’t play to win, adapting how she played to how well the hatchlings were doing.  One of the first times they played, Samus managed to scatter all the pebbles at once out of the grid.  She eventually got the hang of it, enough that she beat Old Bird a few times even though he wasn’t holding back.

After that, the games moved to the Morph Ball itself.  Further control was formed through rolling the Morph Ball between two lines in order to knock down some bottles.  Use of the Spring Ball and evasion was taught through hopping over tripwires in order to avoid waking the Torizo statue they were attached to.  Samus often came out of these games laughing in spite of the calmness required to play them, as she was comfortable with coming in and out of the spiritual plane by then.  She had a different laugh from them, learned from her human parents when she was very young.  Despite that, such laughter did not bother the other elders in transition as much as her crying did.  They enjoyed it even though they did not come back like Bright Eyes.

Of course, there were the Morph Ball mazes to train her to solve.  Morph Ball was a widely used ability among their race, enough that Chozo architects placed tunnels everywhere and competed to make the most complex mazes around.  Other Chozo would compete to complete these mazes the quickest; they often took for granted the number of skills that were required to do so.  Moving one’s physical location through shifting to the spiritual realm, moving a smaller object through a winding path with many dead ends, keeping one’s awareness all around the ball so traps and enemies didn’t surprise one, knowing how to handle crumbling or vanishing blocks, then coming back into the physical realm with grace: these were all unwittingly practiced in the games hatchlings and trainees played.

Much of Samus’ suit training were things she had done without it, to confirm the difference.  Bright Eyes gave her some challenges to get through the Morph Ball mazes faster than before.  Now that she had the warrior’s suit, she also needed some awareness training.  While there were suit upgrades that would help detect possible enemies, one always had to be prepared for malfunctions or new cloaking technologies.  Bright Eyes let her borrow an Ice Beam upgrade, then had her hunt down motes who were not harmed by that weapon.  The motes were designed to be playful creatures that used psychic abilities to avoid being seen.  However, they wanted to have fun, not minding being frozen since it was part of the game.  One had to have good awareness to sense the motes when they avoided being seen as much as possible.

* * *

Samus had grown into a legendary warrior, like the strong threads had suggested.  There were traces of corruption around her that had tried to take her over.  While she had remained herself, shadows of pain and sorrow remained from her trials.  Her gaze was harsh and sharp from her experiences being surrounded by enemies.  But she still had a kind warmth in her spirit.  Vengeance didn’t drive her; justice did.

Between her explorations of Merseki, Samus would stop by their ship for a break.  They spent much of that time talking about what they had all done since they’d seen each other last.  Bright Eyes had seen much of Samus’ adventures in her visions.  Still, it was better to have her own account of what happened.  She’s faced Metroids of all kinds; she had been partially a Metroid too, to save her from a greater threat.  She’d used the power of Phazon for herself while she’d been fighting others corrupted by it.  She’d even fought against a corrupted clone of herself, as well as Ridley far more often than she should have.

“He is dangerous to his allies as well, but the pirates keep reviving and empowering him,” she said during another game of mancala, disgusted at what she said.  “And sometimes it’s not even them.  But whatever they do to him, I’ll defeat him again to keep him from destroying the lives of others.  I already defeated him once for my parents.”

“When I look to the space pirates, they are enamored of power and destruction,” Bright Eyes said.  “It is no wonder that they have high regards for Ridley.  It seems to me that they are not too different from us Chozo at times.”

“Really?” Samus asked, not liking that comparison.  But she was open to hearing why.

She felt she had good reason for saying that.  “None in the universe begins with wisdom.  That is taught by experience, day by day for the individual, generation to generation for species.  Many begin with curiosity, awakened from the state of the beasts by it.  Both we Chozo and the space pirates tampered with life out of curiosity before we had the wisdom to have more caution.  It led to the creation of monsters like the Metroids and mutated pirates.  The monsters proved beyond our control, although the space pirates have not yet gained the wisdom to stop.  Nature will do what it wants, no matter what we do to it.”

“I guess you have a point,” she said, picking a group of stones to start moving.  “The Chozo of Tallon IV worked with nature and many of their structures were still standing.  The pirates still force their structures onto whatever places they find.”

“In time, they may become a benefit to the galaxy rather than a threat,” Bright Eyes said.  “They may not.  But I hope they do.”

“If they get some sense, that could be good,” Samus agreed.

* * *

The Tiklkli were now extinct; they never managed to leave their planet.  However, their mechanical creations and one intelligence remained.  It took a while for them to figure out how to contact that being.  They’d already figured out what the intelligent being was: the entirety of the industrial structure in the hidden side of the world.  It was continually adding onto itself, replacing the old and filling out the space it had.  To protect itself, the industrial being created the animalistic robots to attack any foreign entity that got into its half of the world.

But they had to get into its world to speak with it.  Old Bird had reconstructed their ammo and shield generators so that Samus could make use of them.  The shield was especially valuable since it would take the robots’ missile spam for her.  While it took half a minute for the shield to regenerate, that was a few seconds faster than their ammo regen.  The robots with shields were not as much trouble to her since she was more careful with her ammo use.  The ammo generator was a luxury that she wasn’t used to, but helpful now that she had it.

Knowing the purpose of the robots, Samus aimed to disable them rather than destroy them.  She had to move quickly to get out of their aggro range before they could restore themselves.  In this way, she got to a circular platform with a two-foot tall statue of a Tiklkli flanked by sensory equipment.  There was some semblance to the space pirates in its silhouette, differing in a curled pair of feelers at the sides of its head and six black-veined translucent wings on its back.  Its multifaceted eyes lit up as a string of clicks and hums came from the statue.

Her suit translated the Tiklkli’s language into, “You do not have the authority to be here, stranger.”

“I apologize for intruding,” Samus replied.  Bright Eyes had determined that this being wasn’t violent; it was simply trying to defend itself.  “You are Mizklin, correct?”

“Yes, I am the Merseki Defense System Mizklin,” it replied.  “I will protect this world.”

“I don’t mean harm to your world,” she said.  “I am Samus, a bounty hunter.  Myself and the Chozo who landed here some time ago are investigating Merseki out of curiosity.  We wished to know more about your world.”

Mizklin considered that for a moment, then said, “I do not recognize your word ‘Chozo’, and your name sounds strange.  Your machines fell from the sky.  You are from the stars?”

“Yes, we’re from different stars,” Samus said.

“Many had wondered if there were other beings out with the stars,” Mizklin said.  “We never met any.  And I’m afraid that no Tiklkli remain.  How is the world outside?  Is it alive and clean?”

“Yes, there’s many animals and plants out there,” she said.  “There’s little evidence of the Tiklkli out there, mostly old animal cyborgs.”

“Then the plan worked.  Warfare, pollution, and too aggressive warbots rendered Merseki nearly uninhabitable.  My people decided that industry should be removed from the world to let it recover.  However, they were unsure if they could live without that technology.  I was to retreat to inside these spaces to run the industry they needed.  It failed to be enough to save my people.  But if the world outside has recovered, my task was still accomplished.”

That confirmed what Bright Eyes had read from the threads of the past.  “It’s still unfortunate.  What are you going to do now, Mizklin?”

“I do not know,” it replied.  “There was not a plan for this scenario.  I have no orders to produce, but the factories need something to do.  I cannot leave or my factories might ruin the outside world again.  This is unclear.”

“You have the last history of your people, which we’re interested in,” Samus said.  “And perhaps we could find a way to move you to another world.  You’d have to learn new means of production to meet with our pollution restrictions, but you could do work then.”

“I would like to be useful again,” Mizklin said.  “To preserve the memories of my people, I would be grateful to work with you.  I am not sure how I would move from this place, but here, I shall give you permission to be here.  My drones will not attack you now.”

“I need to contact some people, but we’ll find a way to move you to a new place,” she said.

Samus then returned to the Chozo ship to discuss Mizklin’s situation with Old Bird and Bright Eyes.  “I could have some difficulty getting the Federation to work with me after the X Parasite incidents, so can you contact them for this?”

Old Bird nodded.  “That should be no problem as I still have several contacts with them.  We’ll make sure Mizklin is well taken care of.”

“Yes,” Bright Eyes said.  “It is intelligent enough to feel alone, so it shouldn’t be left that way.”

“I hope that works out well,” Samus said.

But it might go wrong, like it had for many other things.  Mizklin didn’t seem bad, so it might be good to make sure it was an ally.  She would have to keep better contact with Old Bird and Bright Eyes as well.  As much as she’d done on her own, this adventure felt a lot better because they were there with her.


End file.
